"
"Oh, yes! Wait. I'll dress and be right down."
"That's all right," said Tunis. "I'll wait."
She scurried into the clothes she had laid out before going to bed.
In five minutes she crept down the stairs into the kitchen and out
of the back door. Tunis, holding the sleepy mare by her rope bridle,
met her between the kitchen ell and the barn.
"You look as bright as a new penny," he chuckled. "But it's early
yet for you to be astir. I'll put Queenie in her stable and show you
where the feed is. Aunt Prue will like to have her back. She sets
great store by the old mare. She won't be much bother to you, Ida
May."
"Nothing will ever be a bother to me here, Captain Latham," said the
girl cheerfully.
"That's the way to talk," he said, with satisfaction. "Just you keep
on that tack, Ida May, and things will go swimmingly, I've no
doubt."
In ten minutes he was briskly on his way to the town. The girl
watched him from the back stoop as long as he was to be seen in the
morning mist. Then she went back into the house, made a more careful
toilet, and when Cap'n Ira came hobbling into the kitchen an hour
later breakfast was in preparation on the glowing stove.
"I swan! This is comfort, and no mistake," chuckled the old man,
rubbing his chin reflectively.
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